Mich. governor suspends 2 officials in water crisis

Detroit resident LaTonya Gray, who was born and raised in Flint, joins the protest Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2015 behind her sign at the protest over Governor Rick Snyder's handling of the Flint water crisis, outside the Capitol Building at Governor Snyder's State of the State address.(Photo: DAVE WASINGER / Dave Wasinger/Lansing State Journal)

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced the suspensions of two Department of Environmental Quality officials Friday, but if the state determines those or other workers need to be fired for mishandling the Flint water crisis, it could take more than a year to make it final.

Snyder said in a news release Friday two DEQ officials were suspended pending an investigation, in accordance with civil service rules. Although state officials wouldn’t reveal the names of the employees, they said they were managers within the Water Quality division of the DEQ.

They were suspended without pay, although under civil service rules, the unpaid status can only last seven days. The internal investigation into further action against the two employees should take a couple of weeks, said Kurt Weiss, spokesman for the state’s Department of Technology, Management and Budget. After seven days, they’ll go back on the payroll.

Once the investigation is complete, the action taken against the employees can range from getting their job back to getting fired, Weiss said.

“Michiganders need to be able to depend on state government to do what’s best for them and in the case of the DEQ that means ensuring their drinking water is safe,” Snyder said. “Some DEQ actions lacked common sense and that resulted in this terrible tragedy in Flint.”

In his State of the State address Tuesday night, Snyder vowed to investigate his administration’s mishandling of the crisis and hold those at fault to account. But, except for any employees who may end up criminally charged at the end of investigations by state Attorney General Bill Schuette or the U.S. Justice Department, disciplining government workers takes far more than a pink slip signed by the governor.

Snyder’s powers to discipline the more than 47,000 employees in his administration are severely limited. Rules established by the state Civil Service Commission and through union contracts act as a buffer between the governor and everyone except his direct appointees.

Those buffers protect the government from politically motivated hires or fires, but they also create a multistep system that can drag discipline out over many months.

At the Department of Environmental Quality, two key employees — Liane Shekter Smith, who was the chief of the DEQ’s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, and Stephen Busch, a district manager in the drinking water division for MDEQ, whose area of responsibility included Flint — have been reassigned and no longer have any role in dealing with the Flint water crisis. An undetermined number of other employees in the drinking water division no longer have any role in the Flint water response, said Melanie Brown, spokeswoman for the department.

In an email, Busch told U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Feb. 27 that Flint had “an optimized corrosion control program” to prevent lead from leaching into the drinking water from pipes, connections and fixtures. In fact, the city had no corrosion control program.

Whether they lose their jobs will be determined after a DEQ investigation into the Flint water crisis is complete, Brown said.

“DEQ leadership now is doing internal audits and of course, we have other investigations happening too and all of this happens through the civil service process too,” Brown said. “I can’t say what status people will have after the investigations.”

Snyder can fire his direct appointees. He already accepted the resignation of Department of Environmental Quality chief Dan Wyant after the governor’s Flint Water Advisory Task Force identified “a primary failure of leadership” at the department.

Snyder said Tuesday that the DEQ “misinterpreted the water safety regulations” and the Department of Health & Human Services incorrectly blamed lead levels on seasonal trends.

“For those whose mistakes contributed to this disaster,” Snyder said in his Tuesday speech, “we are fully cooperating with investigations and will hold those individuals accountable.”